When Should You Start Obedience Training?

Most puppies are introduced into their new homes between 6-8 weeks of age, shortly after they are weaned. Up to this point, their mother and siblings have been influential in developing good puppy manners. If puppy is too rough with its siblings, their littermate lets out a yip and scurries away. Momma dog will roll the puppy over and place a paw on his or her tummy and pressure on its neck with her mouth to teach it to behave. Your responsibility as the new pet owner is to continue developing the puppy into an obedient pet.

Organized obedience school usually begins for a puppy around 12 weeks of age. In the gap of time between weaning and obedience school, you can still teach your puppy not to bite, jump, or have accidents in the house. Close monitoring of the puppy will allow you to run interference quickly if your puppy is beginning to show inappropriate behavior. Redirection is beneficial in managing play biting by offering your puppy a chew toy to play with rather than your hand, pant leg, or coffee table leg. You can try to squeeze your puppy’s toes, bump your knee into their chest, or turn in circles to deter jumping.

Whatever training you are working on needs to be consistent and practiced by all members of the household so that your puppy will not become confused and can be raised into a pleasant companion. Additional puppy training tips can be found at www.veterinarypartner.com.